A Falling Star
by FuchsiaMae
Summary: Wheatley's exile doesn't last as long as he thought it would. Even the moron deserves a happy ending.
1. The Long Fall

**Part 1: The Long Fall**

"Space… is big," Wheatley said slowly, staring out across the starry vastness that surrounded him, letting the words sink in. "Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space." He paused. "I heard that on the radio once. Something about hitchhikers, and towels or something. Yeah." He glanced at his companion. "You'd have liked it. There's a lot about space."

"SPACE!"

"Yeah."

He gazed down at the planet that had once been their home—he'd never seen much of it, but he found himself missing it all the same. He wondered what those great wide oceans were like up close, and whether Earth mountains were anything like the crater crags of the moon. He wondered how many humans were left down there, if any at all.

He wondered if she was alive. He wondered if she ever thought of him.

They were over Asia now. At least, his internal charts said it was called Asia. From here he could see the Himalayas, the islands of Japan, even the hair-thin line that was what remained of the Great Wall of China. Looked more like an Alright Wall of China, really, at least from here. Dinky little thing. Barely visible.

Except… it looked a bit more visible than before.

That couldn't be right. Quickly, he pulled up the images from their last time around the orbit and compared them to what he was seeing now—yes, the little dark line was definitely growing more distinct. He ran some scans and calculations in his head, and rapidly reached a conclusion. They were in fact closer to Earth than they had been. Because their orbit had deteriorated. And was continuing to do so, at an increasing and unstoppable rate.

Wheatley made an uneasy throat-clearing noise. "So I've got some news, mate—our orbit is deteriorating. Rather fast, actually. Which means that within a, uh, relatively short time, we will be hurtling uncontrollably through the Earth's atmosphere in a giant screaming ball of fire, in which we will most probably die. And any charred remains will hit the ground very hard, with some sort of sickening crash, I imagine. So there's that."

"Crash?"

"Yeah, crash."

"Space crash. From space. Flying through space, space flying. Going to Earth. Wanna go to Earth. Earth. Earth. Earth. Earth."

"Yeah, mate, we'll get to Earth. But, uh, you seem to be forgetting the fiery screaming death part. And then of course the crash."

"Crash. Earth. Ka-PSHH. Earth. Earth. Earth."

This went on for a while.

"Earth. Earth. Earth. Earth. EarthEarthEarthEarth—"

Wheatley had had enough. "YES! Yes, we are going to Earth! We are also going to die! I don't know if you've got that through your thick metal hull, but—"

"WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

And then Wheatley noticed they were falling. The transition from a close orbit to an actual fall was gradual, but they'd made it, he was certain. He became very much aware of the weighty feeling caused by gravity pulling them in. Hurtling through space, plummeting down towards the planet's surface, with no way to stop—he looked down at the Earth below and felt suddenly sick. "I'm gonna die."

It was strange to stare death in the face. He'd had close calls before, of course—escaping the crumbling Relaxation Center, leaving his management rail, using his flashlight, and that moment during their final awful confrontation when he'd thought she was going to kill him—but head on like this, with no escape… It was sobering. This was going to be a long fall.

He looked over at the Space Sphere beside him. Poor little bloke didn't even understand what was happening, really. He was annoying as hell, but Wheatley had grown a bit fond of him. He didn't deserve to end like this. Neither of them did.

Well. Maybe that wasn't quite true.

"Oi, Space mate?"

"SPACE!"

"I'm sorry I got you into this, pal. I wish it didn't have to end this way."

"Space! Space falling! Going to Earth! EARTH! EarthEarthEarth!"

Well, at least the little guy wasn't scared.

Wheatley gazed back at the ground and felt his insides twist with fright. The atmosphere slowed their fall, but under its friction he could feel his hull heating up, his heat sensors registering the climbing number like a countdown clock—1500—1800—_2000 Kelvin_, there was no way he could survive this—

"We'regonnadiewe'regonnadiewe'regonnadie—"

He squeezed his optic shut, trying in vain to let his mind go blank. Over the sound of air rushing past him, he heard his own panicked screaming, and the exhilarated whoop of the Space Sphere beside him:

"_We'regonnadiewe'regonnadieWE'REGONNADIE—_"

"_Yeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaw!_"

And then he plunged into sudden cold darkness.

.

**A/N: **The quote that Wheatley heard on the radio is from _The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_, by Douglas Adams. His comment about the Great Wall of China is lifted from Karl Pilkington on _An Idiot Abroad_.**  
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	2. Still Alive

****Part 2: Still Alive****

"This is death. I'm dead, aren't I?" Wheatley's optic opened hesitantly, but he could see nothing. His surroundings were pitch black. "I didn't really think I'd be around to think about it. Figured I'd just… switch off, y'know? Being a machine and all. Didn't really think I had a soul to go anywhere. But I guess I am somewhere, huh? Wonder where somewhere is…" He had a sudden idea. "Hey! Maybe my flashlight still works! I mean I'm dead, but it feels like I've still got a body, and if I've got my body I've got my flashlight! Right?" He realized he was wasting time talking to no one. "Okay, here we go. Let's try this thing." He squeezed his optic shutters closed, concentrated hard—

And the light inside his core snapped on. Looking around by its illumination, he saw inky darkness to all sides, flecked with bits of detritus and the occasional stream of tiny bubbles. He felt a sudden stab of terror. "Oh god I'm underwater. I'm dead. I'm dead I'm dead." Any minute he'd feel water rushing through his hull, destroying his delicate and very non-waterproof system, any minute…

…Any minute…

After another few minutes of waiting, he wondered if maybe he was more waterproof than he'd thought. He wouldn't put it past the lab techs to lie to him about it—after all, they'd lied about everything else. So maybe he wasn't going to drown. Score one for Wheatley.

And then he noticed a soft, tuneless hum off to his right. The water warped it somewhat, but it sounded strangely familiar. "Hm-hm, hm-hmhm, in the water, went to water. Not in space. Big and wet. Lots of water. Not space."

Wheatley laughed in relief. "Space! You're okay!"

"Not space, not space. In the water." In the murky distance, he saw the yellow light of Space Sphere's optic turn to look at him. "Hey! Hey, Blue! Hey! Not in space!"

"That's right, we're not," Wheatley chuckled. He peered at their surroundings again. "Don't know where we are, but it's not space."

"Gooooing up. Up up up!"

"What?" But the Space Sphere was right—they were rising. Their cores must be buoyant somehow. Wherever they were, they'd be out of the water pretty soon.

He looked up towards their destination. It was just as dark above as below. Maybe they were in a cave? No, how would falling from the sky land them in a cave? Maybe it was nighttime. Yeah, that made more sense. But with his flashlight he'd be able to see something, at least. In fact, he could just make out the surface now—coming at them fast. "Here we go!"

As they bobbed up out of the water, the first thing he saw was the starry sky above. It made him shiver. The stars looked just as distant from space as they did from here—cold and distant and lonely. Floating around up there for the rest of his life was not something he wanted to think about.

Beside him, his companion was in awe at the sight. "Ooooooooooh…"

"Yeah, that's space again—"

"Oooooooocean…" But the Space Sphere wasn't looking at the stars. His optic was trained at surface level, gazing out across the vast body of water they'd landed in. "OCEAN! Ocean ocean ocean!"

"Actually not ocean. Lake, in fact." His internal GPS said they were somewhere in the waters of Lake Superior, whatever that meant. He could just make out a shoreline in the distance.

So what did that mean for him? He took a moment to fully assess the situation. Floating around in a lake forever was marginally better than floating around in space forever, he supposed, and he still had Space for company. That was something. And he was alive. That was… miraculous, actually. The fall hadn't killed him, the water hadn't killed him—he was more durable than he'd thought. _Thank you, Aperture Science_. Maybe he could still get through this.

Get through this to what?

He sighed. Life was so much more complicated without a management rail and orders to follow. Not that he'd been very good at following orders, but he tried. Now there were no instructions to follow, no authority figure to listen to—knocking about with her had been so much nicer, even if she was murderous and mute and crazy. She'd always known what to do. Even though he had no idea what went on in that squishy human brain, her solid determination had been a strange comfort. He wished she were here now.

_But it's better that she isn't, I suppose. She wouldn't want to be around me anyway_.

This was an unpleasant train of thought. He tried to shake it, but couldn't come up with anything else to think of. At last he looked up again at the stars. They were beautiful, in a cold and distant sort of way. Watching their sparkle on the surface of the lake made him feel… tranquil? Melancholy? Somewhere between the two—he couldn't quite find the right word. He hated not knowing the words for things.

The little sphere was uncharacteristically quiet as his optic stared out to the dark horizon. He was trying not to think.


End file.
